« Jetlagging | Main | Healing stole »

November 11, 2006

11 November

Anthem for Doomed Youth


What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.


Wilfred Owen

Posted by Anna at November 11, 2006 06:05 PM

Comments

This is a beautiful poem for this Remembrance Day, and it has new meaning for this generation. Thank you for sharing.

Posted by: Tracy at November 11, 2006 08:20 PM

Anna - what a poignant and fitting tribute to all those lost boys. Today we are all thinking of a young man I never met who lost his life in the trenches in Flanders - my great grandfather, Alfred Wright. I am going to use this poem in my PHSCE lesson this week. Thanks you so much for sharing this with us
Jo

Posted by: Jo at November 11, 2006 08:25 PM

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Owen is still getting it right.

Posted by: Ashley at November 11, 2006 08:39 PM

I've always wondered what Wilfred Owen might have written had he not been in WWI...or if he had lived past the war. However, his recording of that awful situation is just right.

Posted by: karen at November 12, 2006 05:02 AM

I've just posted the same poem early this morning and then looked at your blog and saw the same. What a beautiful but sadly apt poem for The Great War and for the present conflicts.

Posted by: Zoe at November 12, 2006 08:21 AM

Beautiful words; even more meaningful these days than when I first discoved Wilfred Owen's poetry in the 60's.

Posted by: Wibbo at November 12, 2006 04:40 PM

Amen.

Posted by: India at November 12, 2006 05:26 PM

I never fail to be incredibly moved by the words of Wilfred Owen. Thank you.

Posted by: Jo at November 13, 2006 12:33 AM

Thanks for posting this - it's beautiful, and so appropriate.

Posted by: Elizabeth at November 14, 2006 10:30 PM